Air circulating heaters



Sept. 19, 1961 F. LUND AIR CIRCULATING HEATERS Filed June 13, 1958 INVENTOR FRED L. LUN D BY g z E ATTORNEYS.

United States Patent G 3,000,374 AIR CIRCULATIN G HEATERS Fred L. Lund, Box 406, Glendale, Oreg. Filed June 13, 1958, Ser. No. 741,788 1 Claim. (Cl. 126-110) The present invention relates to air circulating heaters.

The primary object of the invention is to provide an air circulating heater that draws the air to be heated from outside the room in which the heater is located.

It has been found that best results are obtained by drawing air from outside the room heated either from within a basement or from under the building, through air vents leading to the outside of the building.

A further object of the invention is to provide an air entrance duct located directly under the heater and leading from outside the room being heated.

Another object of the invention is to provide a heater of the class described above in which the heated air is released from the outer walls of the jacket surrounding the heat exchanger slightly above the floor of the build ingand up the side of the said jacket and out the top, distributing the heated air to all parts of the room being heated.

Another object of the invention is to provide an air duct for delivering air from outside the room to be heated into and through the air heating unit. This air duct passes down through an opening in the floor of the room between the supporting joists, the duct having an air moving fan located therein, together with a filtering unit, as well as adjustable dampers for controlling the air flow therethrough. The air duct is designed to be used in combination with an air heater located thereover when heating the room and may be used with the heater not operating for permitting air to enter the room for cooling the same.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent in the following specification when considered in the light of the attached drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of the invention with parts broken away for convenience of illustration;

FIGURE 2 is a side elevation of FIGURE 1 shown partly broken away and in section for convenience of illustration;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view, taken on line 33 of FIGURE 2 looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIGURE 4 is a plan view of the air duct with the heater removed;

FIGURE 5 is a partial sectional view through the heater illustrating another preferred form of draft en trance.

Referring now to the drawings in detail wherein like reference characters indicate like parts throughout the several figures, the reference character H indicates generally an air circulating heater which is supported on and receives air from an air duct assembly A mounted within an opening in the floor 11 of a room to be heated. The duct A extends between the floor joists 12 of the building. The air duct assembly A consists of a tilbular casing 13, having a grill 14 fixedly secured to its upper end. The grill 14 is raised slightly above the surface of the floor 11.

A flange 15 forms part of the casing 13 extends outwardly to rest upon the floor 11, as best illustrated in FIGURES 3 and 4.

The air duct assembly A has a set of adjustable louvers 16 mounted therein which may be controlled manually or automatically by thermostat or other similar controls (not shown).

A circulating fan 17 is mounted on brackets 18 within the casing 13 and is adapted to move air therethrough,

Patented Sept. 19, 1961 'ice The air duct assembly A has a removable filter 19 held in place in guideways 20 mounted in the lower end of the casing 13.

The air circulating heater H includes an outer jacket 21, having a heat exchanger unit 22 mounted therein. The jacket 21 has side walls 23 formed with air openings 24 passing therethrough. The openings 24 have deflecting vanes 25 projecting inwardly and downwardly therefrom for directing the air outwardly from the heat exchanger 22 when travelling up past the heat exchanger 22, as indicated by arrows particularly in FIGURE 3. Openings 26 are formed in the top 27 of the casing 21 for allowing air to pass out therethrough into the room.

The heat exchanger 22 includes a fire pot 28, which has rounded lower corners 29, and a plurality of horizontal annular ribs R surrounding the same for strength and for radiating heat therefrom. A flange 30 is formed on the upper walls of the fire pot 28 to receive a flange 31 associated with an upper combustion chamber 32 of the heat exchanger 22.

The heat exchanger 22 is supported within the jacket 21 .by brackets 22A which are bolted or welded to the jacket-21 and bolted to the flanges 30 and 31, as best illustrated in FIGURE 3.

A door opening 33 is provided for access to the heat exchanger 22. Smoke discharge outlets 34 and 35 are provided on one end and on one side of the combustion chamber 32. The base of the jacket 21 is reduced into a neck portion 36 by an oflset 37. The lower end of the neck 36 rests upon flange 15 of the air duct assembly A, as illustrated in FIGURE 3.

The neck 36 is positioned adjacent but outside the periphery of the raised edge 39 of the grill 14, thus maintaining the air circulating heater H in a fixed position relative to the air duct assembly A while supporting the air circulating heater H.

In many cases the air circulating heater H will be longer than in width, and in this case it is desirable to construct the same more or less rectangular, which would require a rectangular shaped air duct assembly A. The width of this air duct would be approximately the space between joists 12 under the flooring of the building. The position of the air circulating heater H above the air duct assembly A will determine which one of the available smoke discharge outlets 34, 35 will be connected to the smoke pipe 40, indicated by broken lines in FIGURES 2 and 3.

The smoke outlet 34 or 35 not being used will be covered by a cap 41, as illustrated in FIGURES 1, 2 and 3 which also covers the opening through the top 27 of the jacket 21. The lower portion of the jacket 21 is lined with insulation 42 to protect the floor 11.

Referring to FIGURE 5, the conventional air entrance through the door 33 is indicated by the numeral 43. A passage 44, which may form part of the upper chamber 32 registers at its one end to the entrance 43, and its opposite end with the air manifold 45. The manifold 45 directs the air through the opening 46 in the outer wall of the fire pot 28 sufiiciently low to create the proper combustion for fuel resting on the bottom of the burner.

In the use of this new and improved air circulating heater H and air duct A leading thereto, it is intended that the air duct A remain permanently in the floor 11 of the room and when the air heater H is used the neck 36 of the heater is placed over the raised portion 39 of the air duct, as illustrated particularly in FIGURES l and 2.

In operation the air is forced or drawn through the air duct A from outside the room to be heated. This air pass-es up around under the fire pot 28 and up between the upper chamber 32 and the jacket 21 of the heater H, passing out t rough the openings 24 of the sides 23 and through the openings 26 of the top 27 into' the room modifications and adaptations may be resorted towith-' out departing from the scope of the appended claim.

What is claimed:

An air circulating heater comprising a vertical air duct, an integral peripheral flange formed on the upper end of said duct and extending outwardly therefrom for supporting said duct interiorly of an opening in a floor, an annular vertical flange on said duct above said peripheral flange, a casing having top and side walls and an open bottom, said annular vertical flange engaging the interior margin of said open bottom positioning said casing centrally in said duct, an air circulating fan in said duct, an air filter in said duct below said fan, a grille in said duct at substantially floor level interiorly of said annular vertical flange whereby to overlie said duct when said casing is removed, said casing having a plurality of transversely extending elongated air discharge slots on opposite sides thereof, brackets extending dependingly inwardly fronimpposite sides' of said casing, a solid fuel'burning fire pot carried by said brackets in centered relation in said casing and spaced from said grille to provide an unimpeded air passage from saidduct about said fire pot, a heat exchanger mounted on top of said fire pot centrally of said casing and spaced from the top and side walls thereof, .a smoke.outlet extending from the top of said heat exchanger through the'top of said casing, means forming an air duct extending between the exterior of said casing and the interior of said fire pot for supplying air for combustion of solid fuel in said fire pot,

and meansincluding an'access'door'in saidcasing and'a communicating'access openingin said heat exchanger for supplying solid fuel to said fire pot.

References Cited in the file of this'patent' UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,058,254 Pederson Oct. 20, 1936 2,160,264 Furlong May 30, 1939 2,370,795 Jones Mar. 6, 1945 2,383,431 Weyenberg Aug. 21, 1945 2,473,562 Barnes June 21, 1949 2,491,664 James Dec. 20, 1949 2,542,124 Enloe Feb. 20, 1951 2,704,062 Beyerman Mar. 16, 1955 

